Sixty held in Kabul for 'Taliban ties'

Afghan intelligence agents backed by international peacekeeping troops have arrested 60 people with reported ties to the Taliban, according to a spokesman for the peacekeepers.

02 Oct 2004 16:18 GMT

US forces say more violence is expected as election day nears

Lt Cdr Ken Mackillop, spokesman for the peacekeepers based mainly in Kabul, said the raid took place between 3 am and 5 am in the Puli Charki district of the capital.

He gave no details of what the men were arrested for or what they were allegedly planning.

MacKillop said he had no further details other than that nobody was injured in the operation. Afghanistan's Intelligence Service had no comment on the raid.

A spokesman for the 18,000-strong US-led military force warned that the election was entering a crucial phase and that the Taliban were likely to try to disrupt it.

"We are getting to a more dangerous time," said spokesman Maj Scott Nelson.

"As we get closer to the election we expect to see more activity. We think we've done a good job along with the government of Afghanistan to disrupt a lot of their operations, but it only takes one person with a car bomb to get in there and get lucky and do something."

Under pressure

The US military also said its soldiers were fired upon at a base in south-eastern Khost province, near the border with Pakistan, on Friday.

Separately, suspected Taliban fighters fired rockets at a US military convoy in Orgun, another town in the southeast. No injuries were reported in either incident.

Against this backdrop of sporadic clashes, Major Nelson said there exists a significant threat to Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar, where the Taliban have said they will target.

He added that Taliban forces have tried to intimidate voters and local leaders.

"They have significantly increased their information propaganda war. We see a lot of 'night letters' in villages, particularly in the south and south east. The Taliban claim responsibility for things they didn't do, and also just make things up," he said.

"Night letters" are unsigned leaflets distributed to villagers.

Critics accuse President Karzai of looking only after US interests

Different story

Residents on the other hand tell a different story - of government officials coercing people into getting "Karzai cards" and of some governors seizing properties and large farms, often selling them to the highest bidder and using the money for personal enrichment or to buy more weapons for personal armies.

Recently, Ahmad Khan Zadran from Zadran village told Aljazeera.net, "These corrupt governors were in power before the Taliban and have now only returned to steal more of our land. They left the country in a mess and want to do the same again. Who is the US actually helping?